Wireless communications systems are widely deployed to provide various types of communication content such as voice, video, packet data, messaging, broadcast, and so on. These systems may be accessed by various types of access terminals adapted to facilitate wireless communications. In some scenarios, multiple access terminals share available system resources (e.g., time, frequency, and power). Examples of these wireless communications systems include code-division multiple access (CDMA) systems, time-division multiple access (TDMA) systems, frequency-division multiple access (FDMA) systems and orthogonal frequency-division multiple access (OFDMA) systems. Sharing resources enables many users to access a communications network.
Access terminals accessing one or more wireless communications systems are increasingly popular. Consumers also often use power-hungry applications running on access terminals. Access terminals can be battery-powered and the amount of power a battery can provide between charges is generally limited. Access terminals are experiencing continually increasing demand on communications circuits and associated increases in processing required to decode data and voice bitstreams received at the access terminal. User experience can be improved by efficient power usage.